Happy faces and certificates at the end of a previous New York Irish Center's summer course
Photo by: NY Irish Center

The New York Irish Center has announced the return of our Tír na nÓg Children’s Summer Festival a two-week long celebration of youth, Irish heritage culture, and arts.

Ireland is an island of mystic steeped in a wealth of history, mythology, legends, and
folklore. For centuries now, these invaluable stories, woven in our cultural heritage, have been passed down from generation to generation by seancaithe agus sceala (storytellers).

The New York Irish Center feels it is of paramount importance to Ireland’s rich cultural heritage, that these verbal treasures continue to be passed down to tomorrow’s generation on both sides of the Atlantic.

To make this possible the New York Irish Center is reopening its doors to 30 lucky children between 5 and 10 years old for ten full days of exploring Irish culture, heritage, myths and legends though Irish dance, traditional tin-whistling and music, mythological-drama, and ancient visual arts.

The Tír na nÓg Festival is uniquely designed so that all children participate in all four key elements of the festival every day between 10am-4pm, with plenty of breaks and games in between, Monday-Friday 15th-26th July at the New York Irish Center. This year they will also have an early drop off/late pick up facility for parents.

This festival gives children an opportunity to fully embrace, experience and understand these key elements of Irish culture, to stimulate their mind, build on their skills and confidence and provide them with knowledge of key components of Irish myth and legends, in a non-school-like, creative environment. Every year the Festival has an overall theme that children explore, and this year our theme is based on one of Ireland’s oldest legends “Clann Lir” (“The Children of Lir”).

The New York Irish Center is thrilled to announce that the Tír na nÓg Festival will be lead by professional, friendly and very accomplished teaching artists such a Niall O Leary (Irish dance), Christel Rice (tin whistle), Vera Doherty(visual arts) and Jane Mc Carter (drama). These professional Irish artists are in high demand in the New York area and much further afield, so to have all four leading and teaching at our Tír na nÓg for two full weeks is a major opportunity for 30 lucky children.

On Friday the 26th of July the Tír na nÓg Festival will invite family and friends along to view our Festival Finale Showcase where all participants will showcase their newly acquired skills in dance, tin whistle and drama, and exhibit the festival artwork.

Places are filling up fast so to secure your child’s place go on to www.nyirish.org and follow instructions on Festival link. For more information please call Jane on 718-482-0909 or email TirNaNOg@NewYorkIrishCenter.org.